-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, this is "cnn sunday morning." this is mile 26 and the marathon has become a sprint. the candidates' final push to get your vote. the power is coming back and the gas is on the way, but some of sandy's victims are saying they're being ignored, and plunging temperatures are creating panic. we talk about women as a social issue. excuse me, you know? half the population are not a social issue. >> she says it's dangerous war on u.s. soil and it could be decided by tuesday's election. my exclusive interview with

feminist icon gloria staten isla island joochlt it is sunday, november 4th. good morning, everyone. i'm randi kaye. so glad you're with us. we start this morning with the presidential election just two days away. president obama and mitt romney seem to be squeezing every last frequent flyer mile out of this campaign. they've got a combined 16 stops in eight states before heading home, and we'll be there for all of it. our correspondents are spread across the states to bring you all the up-to-date developments, so be sure to keep it right here. the flurry of activity means it's a close race, right? you could say that? take a look here. it shows likely voters evenly split, 48% to 48%. here's what voters said if they had a favorable impression of the candidates. president obama, 54%, and you

see it there, mitt romney, 53%. the last time we saw numbers like this, an incumbent without a sizeable lead was 1992 when george h.w. bush lost to bill clinton. it has been a hairied pace for the correspondents as welt. political correspondent paul steinhauser joins us from his home base in washington. yesterday you were in pennsylvania covering a paul ryan rally. what do you think is the message for the challengers? >> we're hearing change. change and change. remember four years ago president obama ran on the mantle of hope and change. romney finished up at a rally out in colorado. another one of those eight battleground states we keep talking about. and what mitt romney is saying do you want another four years of under president obama or do you want something a little different? here's part of what he said. >> change can't be measured in

speeches. it is measured in achievements. and four years ago, four years ago candidate obama promise dodd so very much, but he's fallen so very short. you recall. he promised he'd be a post-partisan president but he's been most partisan. dividing, attacking, blaming. >> you know, at this late hour here it's all about the ground game. it's about the candidates making sure their supporters actually vote. randi, we heard from both campaigns. the obama campaign telling us they've reached tout 25 million people. the romney campaign saying they've reached out to 50 million people since they wrapped up the nomination back in april. we'll see which campaign had the better gut out and vote efforts. we'll find out on tuesday. >> certainly they're focusing more on the swing states in these two dates. how are those races shaping up? >> we've got 3wr57b8d gnu polls that came out a few hours ago. let's start with iowa.

out with six electoral votes. the president with a five-point advantage. they're considered the gold standard in iowa. nbc/"wall street journal" poll. iowa gave president obama his first big victory. he ends his campaign tomorrow night in iowa. and let's look at new hampshire, a state very important to mitt romney. that's where he launched his campaign about a year and a half ago. it's dead even according to a granite state poll. we saw it pretty much all tied up in an nbc/wall street maris poll. where does mitt romney wrap up his campaign? new hampshire. >> we wanted an exciting race. we got one, don't you think? >> yes, we did, yes, we did. >> we saw the latest polls in iowa and new hampshire. both of those states are on mitt romney's calendar in the last two days. today romney starts out in des moines, iowa, cleveland, ohio,

then newport, virginia. revenge was the topic with all new talking points this weekend during their final stretch. >> you know, at the time the republican congress, any senate candidate by the name of mitt romney -- [ booing ] >> no, no, no. don't boo. vote. vote. vote. voting's the best revenge. >> yesterday the president said something you may have already heard that i found troubling, spoke to an audience and said voting is the best revenge. [ booing ] >> he's asking his supporters to vote for revenge. i'm asking you to vote for love of country. >> president obama is hitting the trail again in a few hours with another democratic hea heavyweight by his side, former president bill clinton. the two will campaign in new hampshire. they also stop in florida, ohio,

and colorado. our white house correspondent dan lothian is live in new hampshire for us this morning. good morning, dan. what is bill clinton's role for obama in thiess final days. how much weight does he carry? >> reporter: the campaign does believe he carries a lot of weight, that he's an effective messenger of the president's vision, of the president's accomplishments over the last four years, and so he's campaigning for the president not only here in new hampshire and pennsylvania and virginia. he's been across the battleground states the last few weeks. remember when the president pull off the campaign trail for three days to focus on hurricane sandy, it was former president bill clinton who was out there laying out the president's vision for the next four years but going after governor mitt romney. so they believe he's an effective voice, someone who can really sort of lay out what the president has done and what he plans to do in a very clear way for voters and to potentially

sway those undecided voters at this point. now, as for president obama, he will continue hammering away at former -- at governor mitt romney today. the closing argument for the president is that he is the trustworthy leader, and despite the fact that mitt romney has been trying to cast himself as the agent of change, the president saying that mitt romney is, quote, a talented salesman. obviously, though, there is the reality that there are a lot of americans out there, including some of the democratic party, who are not pleased completely with what the president has accomplished over the last four years. the president realizes that, he talks about it there in his stump speeches, but he says he has been working very hard for the american people. he made a promise to pull out of iraq, wind down the war in afghanistan, pass health care reform. he said he delivered on that and he plans to deliver on better education for young people and a host of other issues that he

believes he can accomplish if he's given another four years, randi. >> he has the help of star power on the campaign trail as well, right? dave matthews? >> that's right. and we saw john cougar melon camp, katy perry, stevie wonder, jay-z will be appearing with the president as well. why are these big acts so important? well, the campaign believes, number one, it will bring people out to these events and energize them not only at the rallies but also to go back to their neighborhoods and encourage folks to go out and vote. that's the rb they have this star-studded lineup, to energize voters in the final hours of the campaign. >> dan lothian for us live in new hampshire. dan, thank you. one of our many correspondents all over the country for us this weekend. with ohio being one of the key states, obama and romney are battling. ohio secretary of state john

husted ordered experimental software patches to be installed in vote machines in 39 county. the software has the potential to affect more than 4 million registered voters including those in columbus and cleveland. the free press says the software was never certified or tested. cnn's don lemon spoke to husted last night and gave him a chance to respond. >> we have a new system, all we have to do is load the data into the election reporting system. and actually it's so -- it's so -- the reporting system and the actual counting system are not connected in any way, and the results that anybody can get in their home on the computer, they're going to get them the same time i do. we have a very transparent system that's brand new and will help people across this country and across the world frankly look right at our website with what's going on. >> so nothing fishy going on. >> nothing fishing going on.

1.6 million early votes have been cast in ohio. that tops it in 2008. early voting continues through monday. a programming note, be sure to joan anderson cooper and wolf blitzer as they take a close like at the candidates' final push in the american election in the 2012 "countdown to election day" at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. well, life is slowly returning to normal for those affected by superstorm sandy. in new jersey this morning, four more rail lines will be up and running, and power is being restored in more neighborhoods across the northeast. just listen to how people reacted when the lights came on in new york. >> oh, my god. >> and mayor bloomberg says 90% of new york's subways should be working by today. that will make life'sier. but about 2 million people are still in the dark and becoming

increasingly frustrated. temperatures dipped into the 30th last night and a lot of people still don't have heat. bloomberg toured one of the hardest hit areas in queens. that's the rockaways. he warned people the cold can be deadly and has advised people to take advantage of the shelters. another problem from the power outages. 70% of gas stations in some areas can't pump gas. despite new jersey's gas rationing, people are waiting still in long lines and some aren't finding any gasoline at all. >> there's nothing there. >> nothing? >> the gas stations were open but the lines are way around the corner and the ones that were open we got to, it's too late. they were closed up. >> standing in line for eight hours is ridiculous. >> but the lines are absurd. >> the federal government has shipped some 12 million gallons of unleaded gas and 10 million gallons of diesel to the northeast and they gave out ten free gallons of gas to each

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while sandy has had many tragic consequences in the plenty, we need to take a moment to reflect on the important moments in the psych. >> what points do you think are the most important to focus on? >> the first of the three presidential debates. do you remember that? the first one, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, what a feeling that night, huh? >> well, new jersey has come up with a plan to help voters as the state recovers from superstorm sandy. registered voters who have been displaced by the storm and first responders can now vote by i'm and fax. voters can request an electronic ballot from their county clerk's office but the storm won't affect it. votes still must be in by 8:00

p.m. on tuesday. just two days to go and the candidates are neck and neck. but it's not just about the popular vote but the electoral votes. who are those mysterious voters and does the system really represent everyone? to talk about this, i want to brick bring in curtis gants. good morning. >> good morning. >> explain briefly how the electoral college works. >> well, what we do in this country is we're length our president by virtue of the categories in each state. you're electing them for that state. that's how many votes you win if you win the state. >> so some critics that talk about this and spend some time

focusing on this, they say that the electoral college is outdated, that it really doesn't represent how americans vote. i know you're against abolishing the electoral college. why is that? >> why am i against abolishing the electoral college? because if you had a close election like we had in 2000, you would not have to recount one state like florida. you'd have to recount 130 million votes across the nation. if you had a directi election, you could get somebody elected with a plurality of no more than 30% of the vote. if you had a direct election, you would have, by necessity, a national media campaign in which there'd be no incentive for grassroots activity or coalition building. the problem with it as it presently operates is it's not the electoral college per se by the winner takes all system of choosing electors, which

essentially meaning only about 18 states get a campaign. you have to change that. >> so let's talk about the popular vote versus the electoral. just like we saw in 2000, a candidate can still lose the popular vote and win the presidency. you don't think that needs to change? >> no, i don't think that needs to change. our republican has survived with that 14 times. i'm not sure it would survive a 100-day recount or low plurality president or a national media campaign which will afflict all of the media attention to all of the states. i don't think the country would survive very well without it and that's what would happen with the direct election. there is other ways. . you know, we could elect our electors proportionally which would put them to go into every

state because they would have something to gain or we could do it as it now exists in nebraska and maine, which if you win the popular vote in the state, you only get the two electors representing the senate. you have to win the rest by congressional district. either way, you know, it would put most of the states in play in the way that they're not now. >> curtis gans, appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> thank you. confusion and controversy, and we're still two days from election day. already, some allegations that some groups are intimidating and influencing people at the polling place. ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back. jerusalem is a city rich in culture and heritage and we're shown that it's a fabulous one of a kind-market. here's this week's "travel insider." >> reporter: i love to come to this market. this is where you're going to find the real taste and smells of israel. outside the market you have the freshest fruits and vegetables. the produce in this country is really incredible. and inside the market, they have all these breads and sweets and dried fruits and nuts and all these great nibbly things.

they have an alley of restaurants where people can come and each lunch. the thing that i like most is you can find israelis and palestinians from all walks of life. everyone can agree on one thing, good food. elise labott, cnn news. a consulate is expected to bei questioned by the fbi in th coming days. he apparently posted details of the september 11 attack on social media while it was happening. he's said to be connected to extremist groups in north africa. he now remains in custody of his home country of tunisia. the new york nanny accused of brutally killing the two children she had been carrying for has been charged with first- and second-degree murder. she stabbed the two with a kitchen knife at the family's

upper west side apartment. she then tried to kill herself. the mother walked in on the gruesome scene and called the police. the nanny is recovering in a new york hospital from her self-in flikted wounds. president obama picked up a key endorsement just two days before election day. [ male announcer ] what can you experience in a seat? inspiration. great power. iconic design. exhilarating performance. [ race announcer ] audi once again has created le mans history! [ male announcer ] and once in a great while... all of the above. take your seat in the incomparable audi a8. take advantage of exceptional values on the audi a8 during the season of audi event. ♪

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soothes you to sleep with ingredients like melatonin. it's safe with no side effects, so you wake up... ready to go. [ male announcer ] unisom natural nights. welcome back and thanks for joining us. i'm randi kaye. we start with the presidential election two days away. they seem to be trying to squeeze every last frequent